“Citizen groups” are proving to be a thorn in the side of both the Wyoming Board of Education and the Wyoming Department of Education’s attempts to adopt new education standards in the state.
The Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) standards committee is in its final stages of reviewing and recommending to the Wyoming Board of Education (WBE) which new education standards should be implemented throughout the state.
The specific standards that have come under the most scrutiny are the New Generation Science Standards (NGSS), which are a component of the overarching Common Core Standards (CCSS).
There has been a large amount of pushback from some members of the public in regards to the WDE’s recommendations. Groups such as Wyoming Citizens Opposing Common Core cite fears that the standards will unconstitutionally promote an “atheistic worldview” amongst other such concerns.
This has led to is a delay in the adoption process while WBE members request further information from the WDE committee.
“Through the previous standards adoption periods, the WBE has reevaluated the process and improved upon it,” said Laurie Hernandez, WDE Supervisor of Standards.
This reevaluation of the standard adoption process has prompted the WBE to request further items of information from the WDE; items that normally would have been reviewed after the standards were adopted. According to Hernandez, these items include public comments collected through online surveys, cross-examination between the current standards compared to proposed standards and a plan for implementation.
It is important to note that the WBE delayed the adoption process after a rapid mobilization of citizen organizations such as the aforementioned Wyoming Citizens Opposing Common Core (WCOCC.)
If one were to visit the WCOCC website, they would find a well-designed and smoothly functioning page that indicates a highly organized and at least moderately well-funded group.
Now, the idea of a group such as this being well-funded should not come as a surprise. Citizen organizations that have goals which align with a certain political party’s ideology generally receive some sort of funding for essentially doing the legwork of organizing the public.
What is interesting in this case is that the WCOCC website specifically claims that they are a “non-partisan group of parents, grandparents, teachers, students, community leaders and others all advocating for education.”
With Wyoming being the extremely diverse and not at all partisan state that it is, it stands to reason that the group is comprised equally of both liberals and conservatives, right? Right.
Further evidence of the group’s “non-partisan” stance can be seen on a lovely graphic available for viewing on the website.
The image is a map of the U.S. wherein states are colored either red, blue or gray. A blue color denotes a state that has rejected the CCSS, or a state that is, “Strong and Steadfast.” Red colored states are described with words such as, “Action, Confidence, Courage, Vitality” in regards to their efforts in opposing Common Core. It is unclear whether the gray colored states have already adopted Common Core Standards or if they simply aren’t opposing them. Either way, they are described on the graphic as “not yet seeing the light of reality.”
This “action and courage” compared to “ignorant blindness” rhetoric is eerily reminiscent of scriptural delineations between people whom possess faith in God and those whom do not. All this aids in highlighting the “non-partisan” nature of the group, of course.
While it shouldn’t come as a shock that groups such as these exist in Wyoming, it is important to note how organized they have become. Wyoming’s geography, featuring a small and thinly spread out population over a fairly large land area, requires quite a bit of resources and knowledge of mobilization to form a functioning and effective citizen group. Generally money plays an important role as well.
It stands to reason that groups such as these are receiving at least a portion of the money for their operating costs from an outside source. Particularly when you realize that funding something such as a statewide political campaign costs at least $100,000.
All this begs the question of whether or not these truly are “citizen groups” operating within the state.
In order to combat the influence and veracity of groups such as WCOCC, the WDE has embarked upon a stringent campaign to raise public awareness about what exactly the CCSS standards are composed of, and what they would mean for education throughout the state.
“[We’ve] presented information at educator conferences around the state,” Hernandez said. “The WDE has had the proposed science standards, along with others recently reviewed, posted on the WDE website with a link to a survey to gather public feedback regarding those proposed standards for the past several months.”
In the end, whichever side can win the support of legislators will eventually garner the best chance of getting their chosen standards adopted.
